Wynn's Week in Music #4
Big month for insufferable indie listeners like myself
Before we get into it: Myanmar, my family’s home country, was hit by a devastating 7.7 earthquake on Friday. Most of my family are okay, but at least 1,600 people have lost their lives and the number will most likely continue to increase. This Linktree has four donation links for local relief & rebuilding efforts.
I write these posts over the course of the week so decided to go ahead with sending out.
The music and journey of Japanese Breakfast is very dear to me. My friend Jasmine introduced me to them back during our sophomore year of college. At that point the group had released two albums: Psychopomp and Soft Sounds from Another Planet. A common thread through all of their work so far is the idea of loss, rooted in the death of lead vocalist/frontwoman Michelle Zauner’s mother from cancer. This theme is particularly apparent in the first two albums with both of them dealing with stages of grief and mourning in similar but slightly different fonts.
Looking back I remember that Jasmine and I joked the band made “really good music to cry to;” one song in particular, The Body is a Blade from the second album, soothed me through my own sense of loss at the time — the failed end to a seven month talking stage, which 19 year-old Wynn would’ve told you was just as painful as losing a parent.
2020-2021 marked a personal turning point for Michelle: she turned her essay Crying in H Mart into a fully-fledged novel. The book explores the same themes as her music — loss, grief, interpersonal and self-reconciliation — builds it out into a memoir, and adds a completely new dimension to the band’s music. For the second time, Michelle’s words were there for me as I dealt with a loved one spending extended time in the hospital. The next album Jubilee changed tune a bit to focus on joy, with a more upbeat and pop-y sound. The band spent a good year and half touring the world the promote this album, and Jasmine and I got the chance to see them live in Baltimore in September 2022.
Now to share their new album For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) which came out on the 21st. I wanted to take at least a few days of listening to form my thoughts which weren’t hard to finalize: I love the album. It’s a bit of a return to the dark moods that Michelle built with the band’s early work, but with melancholy (go figure) in place of explicit grief. I wouldn’t call it a “sad” album especially compared to the first two, but it’s definitely more somber and contemplative than the previous release.
The album's lead track Orlando in Love admittedly had to grow on me when I first heard it earlier this year. Maybe the quiet strumming intro or the sweeping orchestra felt too different from what I got used to with Jubilee, or something else that I can’t remember. But now hearing it in the full context and flow of the album, I completely get it.
Something that the band have really done well this time around is finding the delicate balance of keeping a consistent feel throughout the whole piece. I felt like Jubilee struggled with this a bit - as a frequent listener of that album, I usually find my attention drifting off towards the middle once the really upbeat feeling subsides. Not the case with this album, each track builds on the previous without becoming overly repetitive or switching up too abruptly. Even with this being a more melancholic record, there’s something for you to enjoy and contemplate with every song.
Michelle, you have done it again.
Ichiko Aoba’s new-ish album Luminescent Creatures was released at the end of February and I got around to giving it a full listen in the last few weeks. I highly highly recommend giving her a listen in general if you haven’t before - her music encompasses both more folksy/acoustic songs in addition to her more recent stuff which draws upon themes like the wonder of the natural world and features a very cinematic, orchestral, expansive sound.
I’ll stop there because Aoba-san deserves her own post, perhaps sometime in the future.
Been in a Canadian indie listening mood as well:
Men I Trust released the album Equus Asinus last week; I particularly like the tracks Bethlehem and Paul’s Theme.
Jane Penny of the band TOPS released her first solo project Surfacing last year. I haven’t listened to the band in a few years but this EP instantly reminded me of them with lots of synth-driven dreampop. Not much that can go wrong with that.
While doing some research and writing for an upcoming post (wink wink) I re-listened to a collection highlighting the works of Algerian film composer Ahmed Malek, remastered and reissued by Habibi Funk. I found myself especially fixated on this track:
Have a great week ahead and happy listening!
Wynn x